FOOD AND CARE. 



birds require less care than poor ones, and sing better as well us more hours in the 

 day. Some birds that can be bought cheap constantly need tonics, and many extra 

 moments of attention. 



Birds are kept for the pleasure they afford, 1 take it ; but if, instead of sprightly 

 songs, there are stupid silences, and, instead of bright eyes and sprightliness, there 

 is heaviness, and a clouded vision, then birds give us only pain ; and so the cheap 

 bird is in the end the most costly bird you could buy. I would like to blot out that 

 word "care," whenever it relates to diseases, from our bird-dictionary: "food" 

 sounds pleasantly enough ; and though I am now frequently too busy to linger in 

 enjoyment at a festal-board, still there is a sort of mince-pie-peach-preserve aroma 

 about the word that is wafted way up here from boyhood's hours secretly spent 

 behind the pantry-door. 



In winter, and especially at the time when the mercury drops lowest, let every 

 bird eat all he will of seeds and foods that are proper for him : if a bird seems to 

 care little for fresh seeds, or prepared food, furnish several good feedings of lettuce 

 or chickweed, celery or apple. It will surprise you to see how much " green stuff " 

 a bird will eat in a day, and how beneficial it is. Birds that are mated will devour 

 a pair of them four or five good-sized leaves of lettuce a day, and none will 

 be wasted if it is given at intervals : a good quantity of green stuff is absolutely 

 necessary while the pair are being fed on the egg-paste. 



The yellow millet-seed in general use to mix with canary and rape seeds, for 

 Canaries, is better for them than only the canary and rape : it is quite as nutritious 

 as the canary-seed, and not so heating. The white, or French, millet is fed to 

 the small African Finches, and small Japanese Nuns : its hulls are soft, so these 

 tiny birds can shell it easily. It should be mixed for them with an equal quantity 

 of canary-seed. 



The aviary collections of these small birds should have, once a week, a good 

 sprinkling of cayenne pepper put in with the gravel on the base of the cage : their 

 bathing-dishes should be wide and shallow, and contain water only to the depth of 

 -one inch and a half. A wide and long dish permits a large number to bathe at 

 once, which is evidently greatly enjoyed by them, and a real pleasure to an observer. 

 These birds like a temperature of sixty-five to seventy degrees. If small nests, 

 either of rush, and shaped like a barrel, and open at one end, or of wire, and lined 

 with canton flannel, are furnished, many of the small birds, such as Strawberry 

 Finches, Orange-breasts, Silver-bills, and Cordon-bleus, and the several kinds of 

 Japanese Nuns, will lay, and then hatch and rear the most tiny specimens of the 

 feathered tribe ever seen in cages. When hatched, the young Finches are only oiie- 

 third the size of a tiny Humming-bird. 



When there are young birds of these varieties to be fed, the cage should be 

 supplied with maw-seeds and millet-seeds that have been soaked over night in warm 

 water, and then strained ; also yolk of egg, and sponge-cake mixed with dried 

 ants' eggs soaked. 



Many varieties of soft-bill birds are now again commencing to sing. Encourage 

 them with the additi jii of a few dainties to the regular bill of fare. A teaspconful 

 of ants' eggs soaked, and mixed with the prepared food, a small quantity of lean, 

 row beef, scraped fine and put in a separate dish, a few poke-berries soaked, and 



